Kenneth Bigley

What can you say about this?

The family of British hostage Kenneth Bigley today made a desperate plea to Tony Blair to bow to his kidnappers' demands as the only way of saving his life.

They face a traumatic 24-hour wait after the deadline for Mr Bigley's execution was extended, following the beheading on camera of one of his fellow hostages in Iraq, US building contractor Eugene Armstrong.

The kidnappers say Mr Bigley, 62, and their third hostage, American Jack Hensley, will meet the same fate unless Iraqi women held prisoner by the US are freed.

In a televised plea, Mr Bigley's son Craig, 33, told Mr Blair: "Only you can save him now. You have children and you will understand how I feel at this time." Mr Bigley's brother, Philip, said: "We have seen the Prime Minister spending time on trains that can help a commuter save 14 minutes on a journey to London, when he should be devoting his time to saving the life of my brother.

"We are not politicians. He is the political head of our country. It is the Prime Minister who has the power to save Ken's life. Prime Minister, we as a family are begging you, please help us."

At the family home in Liverpool, he added: "We feel helpless. We do not have the power to save Ken's life. The death of the American hostage has proved to us that if nothing is done then the two remaining captives will die by the most horrific means. The only person we can now beg to help us is the Prime Minister."

Mr Blair has said he will not negotiate with terrorists. Before news of the execution, he said: "Our response has got to stand firm."

You can't blame Kenneth Bigley's relatives. What would you do if it was a member of your family? You can't blame the journalists - it's a hot story. Should Blair give in to the demands? Of course not. But if Begley is killed, there's no doubt Blair will take much of the blame, and we'll see emotional outbursts from various relatives - and others seeing an opportunity to weigh in. It just needs to be appreciated quite how despicable this is; how Islamic terrorists have sunk, keep sinking, to new lows of behaviour. There's nothing much more to be said, is there? Threatening to saw off an innocent man's head live on video unless their demands are met? I mean, could we have believed just a few years ago that we'd be seeing something like this, that some people were capable of such things? Yes, I know we're all hardened, post-holocaust, to the evils that humanity is capable of, but still.....

Comments

[Eamonn]

But as ever, the Arab media see a conspiracy theory. This is today's Al Jazeera angle:-

"Vowing not to remain silent as "instructed", the brother of a British captive threatened with execution in Iraq has accused the UK government of not doing enough to save the situation.
In an interview with Aljazeera.net, Paul Bigley, 54, said he would not be quiet over the "frustrating" situation he and his family are in, despite the British Foreign Office issuing "strict instructions" for them to resist commenting on the capture."

[DaninVan]

The key is to find a 'bargaining' chip that works. ie. 'You kidnap/kill one of our guys(and) we close 10 Mosques and charge their clerics with Sedition.' It'd be a start. Unfortunately the West doesn't have the cojones for this kind of 'bargaining'.

[Eric the Unread]

DaninVan,

That will play into their hands. The majority of Iraqi's are Muslim and against these people. They need our support, not punishing for the deeds of others.

[Andrew Zalotocky]

Yes it is despicable and we should never stop being appalled by such things, but the terrorists reached those depths long ago. If there's any new development here it's the willingness of some elements of the media to exploit this as a way to attack Blair - listening to the BBC coverage, for example, it appeared that they were emphasising the understandable but utterly naive views of the relatives to make it sound as if Blair would be responsible for Bigley's impending murder. We already knew about the brutality of Islamic fascists. Did we appreciate just how low our own media were prepared to go?

[Eric the Unread]

I've been shocked by the fact the headline news broadcasts have always stated the demands of the terrorists, without noting the abscence of female prisoners in the jails they referred to until much later.

I say shocked, I should say unsurprised...

[Peter Odendaal]

Tragic as the situation certainly is , If Kenneth Bigley and his family are so opposed to Blairs policy's , why did he go to Iraq in the first place. Of course for financial gain! Unless the world wakes up and tries to see other peoples point of view ...we are going to have terrorism with tragical consequences. We are just not prepared to listen to each other but only think of our own idealogies and think that is that. So we try and impose our own greed on people that are light years apart from us in their thinking and then are surprised when they bite us!

[DavidP]

I think the crisis will drag on for some time yet. By killing the 2 Americans quickly, the terrorists have created a sense of urgency and now they can put pressure on the weaker link (the next Spain ?).
...
http://davidp1.blogspot.com/2004/09/ken-bigley.html

[Kevin McKee]

Perspective? Toffey Anus received the Nobel Peace Prize a few years back. How many know that he was the head of UN military during the Rhawanda genocide in April 1994? In about a month
800,000 people were killed, many women and children. A death is a death. Anyone captured,
should consider himself a casualty of war. The
key, be armed, self-reliant and don't get captured. These unfortunates were sold out by
their contract security. As the Israeli experience has shown, negotiating with terrorists
simply drives more terror. Kudos to Blair, the
uncritical passivism of the BBC is shameful.
An American cousin, remember we supported you
100% in your Falklands crisis.